The present disclosure relates to a system and a method for clarifying beverages, for example, for clarifying wine, by filtration A filtration system for clarifying a cloudy beverage, for example, a cloudy wine. A method for filtering a cloudy beverage from at least one tank in which dregs have formed, the method using the filtration system just-described.
Beverages which are obtained from fruits or grains typically contain turbid materials, which are either provided in colloidal form in the liquid or which settle as dregs in a container.
In the clarification of wine from a fermentation tank, processing the wine separately from the lees, the so-called dregs, in the lower part of the fermentation tank is known.
For example, filtration systems are used for clarifying the wine. The lees or the dregs are processed separately or discarded, since the common filtration systems are capable of and designed for processing the wine, but not for processing the lees or dregs having a much higher proportion of turbid materials in comparison to the wine. It is only sometimes expedient, in very large wine production operations, to provide a separate processing line for clarifying the dregs, in order to still obtain at least a wine of reduced quality from the dregs. This is not expedient for reasons of cost in small wine production operations.
The present disclosure addresses this problem.
The present disclosure addresses the problem via a filtration system having filtration circuits and a method using those filtration circuits.
The present disclosure relates to a filtration system for clarifying a cloudy beverage, for example, a cloudy wine. The filtration system includes a tank, in which dregs have formed, through cross-flow filtration. The filtration system also includes a first filtration circuit having at least one filtration module having at least one or more filtration elements having channels having a first diameter, and a second filtration circuit parallel to the first filtration circuit and having at least one filtration module having at least one or more filtration elements having channels having a second diameter that is larger than the first diameter.
The present disclosure also relates to a method for filtering a cloudy beverage, for example, a cloudy wine, from at least one tank, in which dregs have formed, using a filtration system that includes: a first filtration module having a first filtration element, the first filtration element including a first channel having a first diameter; and a second filtration circuit located in parallel to the first filtration circuit, the second filtration circuit including a second filtration module having a second filtration element, the second filtration element including a second channel having a second diameter, the second diameter being larger than the first diameter. The method includes the steps of: (a) the cloudy beverage is either clarified in the first filtration circuit using the filtration modules having the channels having the smaller diameter and discharged or the cloudy beverage is clarified in parallel in both filtration circuits using the filtration modules having the channels having the smaller diameter and the filtration modules having the larger diameter and discharged; and the remaining unfiltered material from step (a) and/or the dregs of the cloudy beverage is/are then clarified in the second filtration circuit using the filtration modules having the channels having the larger diameter and discharged.
Since, according to the present disclosure, at least one second filtration module is integrated in the filtration system, which has one or more filtration elements, whose through-flow channels have a greater diameter than the filtration elements of the first filtration module, not only can the wine to be processed be clarified in the filtration elements having the channels of smaller diameter, but rather it is within the scope of the present disclosure to filter the unfiltered material and/or dregs, specifically in the filtration modules having the larger channel diameter. This is advantageous because the filtrate obtained in this embodiment is composed such that it can typically still be sold as a wine.
Through the modules having the channels of larger diameter, it is within the scope of the present disclosure to also filter the dregs, which have a substantially greater, or higher, viscosity than the cloudy beverage to be processed. At the end of the filtration, this viscosity of the “pasty” retentate, or unfiltered material remaining during the filtration of the dregs, can, for example, be more than 10 times as great, for example, or up to 30 times as great, as the viscosity of the retentate remaining during the filtration of the wine.
The two filtration modules can jointly use the periphery, for example, pumps or control devices, which must be provided on the filtration system, even for only a single filtration circuit.
The one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide substantial economic advantages over the provision of a separate system for processing dregs.
In accordance with the present disclosure, for example, valves or side-changing curves, may be advantageously provided for changing over between the first and the second filtration circuit.
Embodiments of the present disclosure are discussed herein as well as in the claims.
Other aspects of the present disclosure will become apparent from the following descriptions when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.